Collar construction for shirts



Sept. 29, 1959 L. WINTER COLLAR cous'rRuc ioN FOR SHIRTS Filed April 20, 1959 Lou/s W/v TEE IN V EN TOR.

J/ ZML w% 147 TOIeA/EY-S- United States Patent COLLAR CONSTRUCTION'FOR SHIRTS Louis Winter, Beverly Hills, Calif., assignor to Mabs, IInc., Los Angeles, Calif., a corporation of California Application April 20, 1959, Serial No. 807,357

1 Claim. (Cl. 2-132) This invention relates to shirts having attached turndown collars, and particularly to the use of tabs for bolding the wings or tips of the collar neatly in place and close to the inner fold of the collar. A construction suitable for this purpose is described in an application filed in the name of the present applicant, on August 11, 1958, under Serial No. 754,431 and entitled Collar Stay Construction. This application is a continuation-in-part of said earlier application.

Generally, tabs connecting the wings have been used, but they had serious disadvantages. One was the difliculty encountered in attaching the tabs by a detachable fastening element after the tie is tied. Furthermore, the tab and the detachable fastener, such as a button, was visible beneath the tie.

It is an object of this invention to overcome these disadvantages.

'It is still another object of this invention to facilitate the manufacture of shirts having attached collars, and particularly in relation to the mode of attaching the tabs to the underside of the wings or tips.

By the aid of this invention, the wings or tips of the collar can be held neatly quite close to the inner band of the turn-down collar without requiring any reinforcements or stays or the use of starch.

This invention possesses many other advantages, and has other objects which may be made more clearly apparent from a consideration of several embodiments of the invention. For this purpose, there are shown a few forms in the drawings accompanying and forming part of the present specification. These forms will now be described in detail, illustrating the general principles of the invention; but it is to be understood that this detailed description is not to be taken in a limiting sense, since the scope of the invention is best defined by the appended claim.

Referring to the drawings:

Figure l is a front elevation of a shirt incorporating the invention, and shown as it would appear on the wearer, a tie being also illustrated;

Figure 2 is a view similar to Figure l, but with the tie removed in order better to illustrate the tab structure, the collar being in the same position as it would occupy when the shirt is worn;

Figure 3 is a fragmentary view of the front portion of the collar, with the wings or tips turned upwardly in order to show the structure of the tabs;

Figure 4 is an enlarged sectional view, taken along a plane corresponding to line 4-4 of Figure 3; and

Figure 5 is a view similar to Figure 4, but illustrating a modified form of structure.

The shirt 1 is provided with an attached collar structure 2. The collar has a turn-down portion 3 forming the wings or rounded points 4 and 5. It also has a portion 6 extending around the neck of the wearer. As shown most clearly in Fig. 3, the neck portion 6 is open at the front and its edges are fastened together in any appropriate manner as, for example, by the aid of a button 7.

Patented Sept. 25, 1959 The turn-down or outer portion 3 is foldeddownwardly over the neck portion.

The collar constructiondnthis instanceincludes two plies of fabric 8 and' 9 and an intermediate stiffening layer 10. These layersareshown in the cross-sections of Figs. 4 and 5. The edges of the turn-down portion of the collar are formed'by theinwardly folded edges 11 and 12 of the layers 8 and9. These edges, together with the stiffener layer 10, may be first attached together as by the aid of the line of inner stitching 13. Then the layer elements may be turned inside out to place the edges 11 and 12 between the outer layers 8 and 9. A line of top stitching 14 serves to hold the collar layers in the position indicated. This line extends near the bottom of the portion 3 and near the edges of the wings 4 and 5. The line provides a finished appearance to the collar.

In the sectional views of Figures 4 and 5, the layers 8 and 9 are shown quite widely separated, for the sake of clarifying the drawing. .In actual use, however, these layers lie quite close together, and are urged to the position usually by an ironing process.

In order to hold the wings 4 and 5 against separation, use is made of tab structures 15 and 16. The tab structure 15 may be formed of looped multilayer fabric attached at its inner end to the wing or tip 4 by the aid of the top stitching 14. The open ends of the loop may furthermore be attached together by the aid of the overlook stitching 17.

The inner side 15a of the loop has permanently attached to it a metallic snap fastener part 18, such as the male portion of such separable fasteners. This part 18 has a central shank portion which passes through the fabric of the inner layer 15a and is provided with an upset flange holding the snap fastener in position. Since such structures are well-known, further description of the snap fastener attachment is considered unnecessary.

The fabric constituting the loop forming the tab structure 15 may be made up of one or more layers in order to provide sufiicient body for the tab structure 15. Furthermore, since the fabric loop forming the tab structure 15 is folded, as at 19, the metallic snap fastener 18 is covered completely by the loop.

The cooperating loop forming the tab 16 is provided with a female element 20 of the snap fastener structure. The structure of the tab 16 is otherwise similar to the structure of tab 15, and is attached on the inner surface of the turn-down portion 3.

As shown most clearly in Figs. 2 and 3, the tabs 15 and 16 are quite close to the lower edge of the turndown portion 3. In this way, a substantial space is left for the knot of the tie 21 shown in Fig. 1. Furthermore, both tabs 15 and 16 being squarely folded, the entire outer area of the snap fastener member 20 is concealed within the loop formed by folds 19 and 22.

The material utilized for tabs 15 and 16 is preferably inelastic so that the wings or tips 4 and 5 are retained in position quite closely against the neckband portion 6 of the collar structure 2. Accordingly, a relatively large space is left for the knot of tie 21; and the knot effectively conceals substantially all of the tabs 15, 16.

In the form just described, the ends of the tabs 15, 16 are attached to the inner surface of the fabric layer 9. These ends may be disposed between the folds 11 and 12. This is accomplished, as shown in Fig. 5, by inserting the ends of the tabs 15 and 16 before applying the top stitching 14. In other respects, the structure of the tabs in the modification indicated by Fig. 5 is identical to that disclosed in Fig. 4.

The inventor claims:

In a shirt having an attached tab collar which has an inner fold and an outer fold, said outer fold forming a turn-down portion made from at least two plies and stitching; and a snap fastener having male and female having top stitching paralleling the edge and ends thereof, portions respectively carried by the free ends of the the said ends being spaced at the front of the shirt to said tabs.

define a necktie receiving spaceythe combination therewith of a pair of tabs for detachably connecting the 5 References Cited m the file of thls patent said ends of the outer fold, said tabs each having an UNITED STATES PATENTS end connected to an end of the Outer fold and having 1,243,011 Tooke Q. Oct. 16, 1917 free ends extending to the front center of the collar across 2,579,276 Schworm Dec. 18, 1951 the necktie receiving space; each of said tabs being made from inelastic material and being attached to the cor- 10 FOREIGN PATENTS responding end of the outer fold by the aid of the top 8 No way J an. 16, 1939 

